ENLIGHT-Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Law: Technical and legal challenges
The University of the Basque County (UPV/EHU) hosted an Enlight Workshop in San Sebastian (Spain) held on the 7 to 9 of October 2024. As a consortium partner, the Department of Medical Informatics (University Medical Center Göttingen), the University of Uppsala, and the University of Ghent participated in the Workshop on “AI and Law: Technical and Legal Challenges”. Prof. Dr. Borja Calvos (UPV/EHU) organized the event with 59 participants from the academy and industry—students and law professionals, as well as students and professionals in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. AI & Law concepts, methods, and challenges were actively discussed and practiced by combining lectures and use cases related to the topics presented in the lectures.
Thus, on the first day, lectures on AI were given to law students and law professionals and vice versa.
On the second day, mixed groups of law and informatics field participants discussed and solved use cases tailored to apply the concepts presented and discussed during the lectures. Specifically, on the morning of the first day, Prof. Dr. Borja Calvos (Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, UPV/EHU) started the lectures with an introduction to AI. In the same session, Prof. Dr. Use Mori (Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, UPV/EHU) talked about concepts on AI, such as what a neural network is, how it works, and why metrics in AI are required, as well as other introductory concepts presented in the lecture “What is Behind AI”. The lectures of the session were designed for participants with a law background. In a parallel session, Prof. Dr. Andreas Kotsios (Department of Business Studies, University of Uppsala) gave “An Introduction to Law for non-lawyers”, and Prof. Dr. Griet Verhenneman (Department of Criminology, University of Ghent) lectured on the European approach to fundamental rights as an introduction for non-lawyers. All law and informatics-related field participants joined the lectures and discussions in the afternoon. In the afternoon session, Dr. Zully Ritter (AG Clinical Decision Support, Department of Medical Informatics) gave a lecture on explainable AI in clinical decision support systems, followed by a discussion of the legal aspect of AI (AI Act) presented by Prof. Dr. Eva Lievens (Department of Law & Technology, University of Ghent). Ainhize Barrainkua, a doctoral student from the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, presented an exciting lecture on algorithm fairness, a research topic in Prof. Dr. Borjas’s group, pointing to the quantification of algorithmic fairness as an essential factor for allowing “trustable AI”. One of the most discussed topics was inspired by the closing lecture given by Prof. Dr. Itziar Alkorta (Department of Corporate and Civil Law, UPV/EHU), entitled “Who’s responsible for the damage caused by AI?”. In her lecture, she selected passages from the AI Act that showed how the responsibilities for AI solutions change, including now all the entities involved, even from the initial phases of the development of the AI application. This could increase security but reduce or delay deploying new AI solutions.
The workshop was evaluated by the participants based on aspects related to content, presentation, and hands-on organization. The Workshop achieved an overall average of 4.75 (maximal best 5.0).
Enlight is a European initiative that allows the interchange of learning, teaching, research, and networking in different fields, including healthcare. The University of Göttingen and nine other European universities are participating in this initiative.
This initiative combining AI and law was started last year with the “Beyond XAI Workshop” organized by Prof. Dr. Anne-Christin Hauschild, Dr. Zully Ritter, and Dr. Stefan Rühlicke (Department of Medical Informatics). It will continue as an Enlight “Blended Intensive Program (BIP)” hosted by the University of the Basque Country from 6 January to 11 April 2025. The Enlight BIP course application for next year is now open until 15 November 2024.